Walnut Aggravation Board

So I made aggravation game boards for my kids and sisters kids this Christmas. This was the final one, the others I gave away… practiced on everyone else’s board so I worked out all the kinks by the time I got to the final board, so this one is perfectly flat works great. I used a template I made out of 1/2 plywood and used Rockler marble hole drill bit.

For the first ones, (Oak) I used a tung oil varnish for a couple of coats, sanded in between, then rubbed in some Howard Feed-n-Wax polish to let it soak in good and cover the end grain of the marble holes, then just painted two coats of the holes. For the final one (Walnut) I used a bunch of coats of polyurethane (I think this gave it a very tough outer surface to protect it from kid damage. Did Thick Poly coat sand w/200, poly sand w/320, poly sand w/400, poly rub with fine wire wool, then coat with Howard Feed-n-Wax and then paint on top of that.

If I do it again I think I would like to try painting the holes first with several coats, then putting the poly on top of that, but i think it will work just fine either way.